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EU Antitrust Troubles Continue For Microsoft
Julie188 writes "Opera Software's year-old antitrust complaint against Microsoft took another step toward being vindicated, and the Oslo-based browser maker can't help crowing over the European Commission's decision. Opera had filed a complaint with the EC in December, 2007, contending that Microsoft's bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows violated antitrust rules. Yesterday, the EC sent a 'Statement of Objections (SO)' to Microsoft with a preliminary finding that bundling IE with Windows does indeed constitute an antitrust abuse. Microsoft has eight weeks to plead its case and change the EC's mind, an unlikely outcome if ever there was one. Opera's CEO said, 'On behalf of all Internet users, we commend the Commission for taking the next step towards restoring competition in a market that Microsoft has strangled for more than a decade.'"
*find: "(provided that is there decision"
*replace: "(provided that is their decision"
I cannot read or write.
"I'd just like to emphasise that taking a million years isn't a metaphor here..." -Rich Bradshaw
In my experience with Americans this goes both ways. They seem to be unable to understand that someone may have personal opinions which have nothing to do with a political party.
That means that you have not spent time in America or even talking to Americans. Many of us want nothing to do with politics or religion (in fact, it is considered impolite to talk about it). Of course, since we have multiple party and a free election, ppl do think about it.
/. is a general purpose forum for geeks. OTH, if you hit the hard core tech sites you will find minimal politics/religion though it does spring up around election.
I am guessing that you are visiting the wrong type of boards.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
This is from experience of Americans coming and talking to me and 3 minutes later begin to drone on about politics.
Perhaps YMMV however this is my experience and although it may be different from yours doesn't make it any less valid. Also this isn't based on on-line experience.
Well, the mod system is there for a reason. If we had to spend time writing well thought out replies to every post that we ever came across that we disagreed with in any particular, then we would become vulnerable to random people who would post hackneyed old strawmen, just to see everyone on /. squirm. Oh right, we already have a name for such people, and they are called trolls. We don't in general respond to a post that we think is a troll because it is a complete waste of time.
The mod system is intended to be both a reward system and a noise filter. It is not perfect however, and sometimes legitimate posts get filtered out, and poor posts get rewarded. If you don't like it, or think that you can do better, then GTFO and create your own site. I'm content with the current false positive rate.
SIGSEGV caught, terminating
wait... not that kind of sig.
For what it's worth, I think it's a pretty sad reflection on the Slashdot community that a post citing numerous specific cases where Windows might be considered superior to Linux has got hit with enough troll mods to make it disappear for most people, yet there are no replies actually countering the points made in that post.
You're right, and if the old metamoderation system were still in place, I'd certainly metamod the "Troll" mods as unfair.
The correct mod in this case would have been "Offtopic", which would encompass both the irrelevance and the rambling longwindedness of the post. Unfortunately, in the new metamod system we can't metamod as "unfair"; we can only "digg" up or down. And since that post most certainly doesn't deserve to be "dugg" up, I can't metamoderate it. The new metamod system has, IMHO, seriously damaged, if not the level of discussion, then at least the thought that ought to go into moderation.
(And yes, both this post and the parent deserve an "Offtopic" mod as well, from a certain point of view.)